Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 23:02:28 +0000
From: Clare Howell
Subject: IYF12
MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editor: Clare Howell, clare@gpac.org
. TRANSWOMAN IN MURDER/SUICIDE
. UNLICENSED SURGEON ENDANGERS TRANSPEOPLE
TRANSWOMAN IN MURDER/SUICIDE
============================
[San Diego, CA: 13 Jun 98] TRANSEXUAL WOMAN
Julia Kate Morgan, 27, shot and killed her
therapist, Rita Powers, on Wednesday (10 Jun)
afternoon and then turned the gun on herself,
committing suicide.
Witnesses report hearing gunshots some-
time after 5:20 p.m. at the Cognitive Therapy
Institute in San Diego. SWAT team members
later found the bodies of Powers and Morgan.
Powers had been shot numerous times; Morgan
had one gunshot wound in the head.
Police speculate that Ms. Morgan was
distraught over Powers's refusal to write a
letter recommending Morgan for Sexual
Reassignment Surgery (SRS). Current medical
procedure requires transexuals to obtain
written recommendations from psychotherapists
in order to get SRS.
Ms. Morgan, a Navy veteran, had been
involved in therapy with Ms. Powers for six
months. Friends of both women report that there
had been tension between the two and that Morgan
felt frustrated by the "system" (The Benjamin
Standards of Care) that prescribes the steps
transexual people must follow to gain SRS.
Friends say that Julia had lost all hope of
completing her transition.
Note: "Standards of Care: The Hormonal
and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender
Dysphoric Persons" was developed by the
Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria
Association and disseminated throughout the
professional community.
###
Contact: Dallas Denny, aegis@gender.org
UNLICENSED SURGEON ENDANGERS TRANSEXUALS
========================================
[New York, NY: 13 Jun 98] DR. JOHN RONALD BROWN
was arrested in California in May, charged with
murder in connection with the death of a patient
who went to Brown for surgery.
Brown, having lost his medical license in
the 1980s for incompetence, had become infamous
in the transcommunity for performing SRS on
transpeople who were desperate for the operation
but unable to comply with the Benjamin Standards
of Care. Medical procedures established by Dr.
Harry Benjamin in the 1970s are followed by
professional caregivers to decide who gets SRS
and when the operation can be performed.
Reputable surgeons require that transexuals
adhere to the Standards before they will perform
SRS.
Working out of a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico,
Brown has performed SRS on transwomen who have
later required emergency care to save their
lives as a result of Brown's operations. Near
fatal peritonitis, permanent colostomies, and
decaying flesh have been reported as resulting
from Brown's work.
Although he has served time in prison for
practicing medicine without a license, Brown has
continued to prey on transpeople desperate for
the operation and unable or unwilling to comply
with the Benjamin Standards.
There has been controversy within the
transcommunity about the legitimacy of the
Benjamin Standards and the diagnosis of
Gender Identity Disorder (GID) which undergirds
the Standards and from which all medical
treatment of transpeople follows.
###
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